Concrete 
Construction 

A Preliminary Pamphlet 



COMPLIMENTS OF 



Engineering Company 
of America 

74 Broadway, New York 



PUBLISHED BY 
BRUCE & JOHNSTON 

42 Broadway, New York 



TA<aS3. 
,BS7 



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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
TWO OoDies Received 
SEP 12 1904 
CoDyrlsrht Entry 

CLASS \, XXo. No. 



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COPYRIGHT, I904, BY 

ENGINEERING COMPANY OF AMERICA 

NEW YORK 



07--3737.3 



Concrete Construction 



"It seems almost a philosophical thought that, in this 
age, when man changes and thought changes so quickly, the 
material representing the period is of a plastic and flexible 
nature." — Robert W. Lesley, in June Cement Age. 



THERE is no other single subject which is at this 
moment engrossing so much of the attention of 
the engineering world as that of concrete con- 
struction. Within the last few years the use of concrete 
as a material of engineering has received an enormous 
impetus. New uses are constantly being found for con- 
crete and it is ever encroaching upon the fields hitherto 
occupied by stone, steel, hollow tile, etc. In other 
words, we are entering upon an "Age of Concrete." 
Therefore this brief treatise about concrete, its properties 
and applications, may be considered timely. 

Concrete may be denned as an artificial 

What concrete is T , , c „ , 

stone. It can be used tor all structural 

purposes as a substitute for stone and in addition it has a 
wide variety of applications where the use of stone is 
impracticable. Concrete is composed of broken stone or 

3 



1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 

Barrels 

19,500,000 

19,000,000 
18,500,000 
18,000,000 
17,500,000 
17,000,000 
10,500,000 
10,000,000 
15,500,000 
15,000,000 
14,500,000 
14,000,000 
13,500,000 
13,000,000 
12,500,000 
12,000,000 
11,500,000 
11,000,000 
10,500,000 
10,000,000 

9,500,000 

9,000,000 

8,500,000 

8,000,000 

7,500,000 

7,000,000 

0,500,000 

0,000,000 

5,500,000 

5,000,000 

4,500,000 

4,000,000 

3,500,000 

3,000,000 

2,500,000 

2,000,000 

1,500,000 

1,000,000 

500,000 






gravel, sand and cement with the addition of water sufficient, 

after allowing for evaporation and absorption, to unite 

chemically with the cement. 
j 

A typical concrete is made as follows : To one barrel 
of a standard Portland cement are added three barrels of 
clean sharp sand. The two are intimately mixed — either 
manually or by a mechanical mixer — and then enough 
water is added to bring the mixture to a certain consistency, 
the proper amount of water being readily judged by one 
experienced in this work. Five barrels of broken stone 
are then added, the whole thoroughly intermixed, and the 
concrete thus formed is ready to be conveyed to the forms 
or the excavations prepared for it. Concrete made in the 
above proportions would be known as a 1:3:5 mixture. 
The permissible proportions, however, vary widely from 
1:2:4 to 1:5:10 according to the nature of the ingredients 
and the service for which it is intended. In general, 
concrete with the smaller proportion of cement will not 
sustain the same strains as the concretes wherein the pro- 
portions are about as indicated in our typical mixture. 

The composition of a properly proportioned concrete 
may be thus considered; sand fills up the interstices 
between the pieces of rock, and the cement, in turn, fills 
up the interstices between the particles of sand and between 
the sand and the rock. As 90% of a standard cement will 
pass through a sieve of 10,000 meshes to the square inch, 
it is evident that the cement will effectually fill up all voids. 
But the cement also performs an even more important 
function. It enters into chemical combination with the 
Water used in mixing and acts as a binder, tenaciously 
holding the whole mass together. As soon as the cement 
is mixed with water this chemical change commences, or 

5 




HENNEBIQUE'S APARTMENT HOUSE, 
1 RUE DANTON, PARIS. 

The entire structure is of re-enforced concrete. 



the concrete begins to "set" as it is generally expressed. 
Therefore the concrete must be put in place immediately 
after mixing. At the end of about three or four days, the 
concrete is solid enough for the supporting forms to be 
removed and, atter possibly thirty days, it is ready for the 
loads for which it is designed. The hardening continues 
for months and the concrete becomes stronger as time 
elapses. 

The fact that concrete can be moulded 

Advantages resulting c .... ... 

into any rorm desired is a most valuable 

from its plasticity ,. , , . , . , . ., , 

quality and one which is largely availed 

of in practice. Aside from such uses as being simply 
deposited for foundations, abutments, etc., it is moulded 
into shapes as intricate as may be desired, one of the 
recent applications which is being extensively developed 
at the present time being the use of concrete for making 
hollow blocks for building purposes. The facility with 
which it can be moulded for producing decorative effects 
is, of course, well-known. Another highly important ad- 
vantage resulting from the plasticity of the newly-mixed 
concrete is that other materials, such as iron, may be 
imbedded in it, this feature being hereafter treated at 
length. 

The merits of concrete as a material of 

Concrete is not an , , , c 

construction have been recognized tor 

untried material c , , 

centuries, borne or the most enduring 

monuments of antiquity are constructed either wholly or 
in part of this material. The dome of the Pantheon, 
erected about the beginning of the Christian era, is built 
of concrete as are some of the other historic structures 
of that period. Concrete has ever since been used to a 
greater or less extent. With the discovery and applica- 

7 



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tion of the methods of making Portland cement, which 

we may ascribe to the period 1820-50, concrete assumed 

its place as one of the principal materials of engineering 

and we may say that each year has shown an increase 

in the amount of concrete construction with a constant 

widening of the field of its applications. 

_ - , The strength and durability of all con- 
Concrete re-enforced 

. . _ . _ crete depend, of course, upon the quality 

with steel provides . . . 

. _ _ . of the ingredients and the care exercised 

for all strains . . D 

in mixing and handling. When the work 

is done under experienced supervision, however, the charac- 
teristics of the resulting concrete can be accurately predicted. 
Concrete will withstand enormous compression strains. 
When heavy strains other than those of compression are to 
be provided for, the concrete is so strengthened with steel 
that the metal takes the tensile and shearing strains and the 
concrete, the compression strains. This construction, 
known as armored or re-enforced concrete, is rendered en- 
tirely feasible by the facts that concrete has considerable 
adhesion for iron and steel and the co-efficients of expansion 
(by heat) of the two materials are practically identical. 

There are a number of "systems" of re-enforcing 
concrete with steel. We need not here discuss their 
relative merits as some have particular advantages for 
some purposes and others, for other purposes. Further- 
more, the principles on which they are all based are 
identical. 

Although many of the applications of 

Some of the more im- c 1 „i „ • 1 

concrete. are or recent date, the material 

portant applications , , , , , , . 

has passed completely beyond the experi- 
mental stage. No case is known of the failure of a concrete 
structure which has been erected under competent engineering 

9 




PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF SHEARED. BAR 



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DfAGRAM SHOWING TRUSS ACTION 



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BARS AS USED IN BEAM AND FLOOR CONSTRUCTION 



THE TRUSSED STEEL BAR FOR CONCRETE RE-ENFORCEMENT. 




ADAPTATION OF THE TRUSSED STEEL BAR. 



io 



supervision. Concrete, re-enforced with steel, has been 
successfully used in the following: 



Office Buildings, 

Apartment Houses, 

Theatres, 

Schools, 

Court Houses, 

Public Libraries, 

Factories, 

Mills, 

Warehouses, 

Foundries, 

Grain Elevators, 

Stables, 

Cisterns, 

Bins, 

Stand-pipes, 



Bridges, 

Culverts, 

Abutments, 

Sea-walls, 

Breakwaters, 

Jetties, 

Piers, 

Reservoirs, 

Tanks, 

Dams, 

Aqueducts, 

Sewers, 

Subways, 

Dust-chambers, 

Chimneys, 



The superiority of 
concrete as a fire- 
resisting material 



Besides a great number of minor uses in buildings con- 
structed primarily of other material. 

As regards the all-essential quality of 
ability to resist fire, concrete is absolutely 
and unqualifiedly superior to all other 
building materials. This has been shown 
many times in tests conducted by the building and fire de- 
partments of various large cities in this country and abroad. 
The usual way of conducting such tests is to build a small 
structure of concrete and to maintain therein a fire ot a 
temperature of about 1,700° F. for a number of hours. A 
stream of water is then turned on the fire and concrete, and 
results are carefully noted. In general, a few hair-like 

11 LofC. 



Excerpts from an editorial in 

C|)e j^eto Hork Ctmes. 

NEW YORK, MONDAY, JUNE 6, 1904. 

A CEMENT BUILDING 

The building- in Cincinnati of the first 
concrete office building - of the modern 
' ' skyscraper ' ' type is an event of more 
than ordinary architectural and technical 
interest. It points to the almost unlimit- 
ed possibilities of this material in build- 
ing construction, without fully realizing 
those which will be found of the greatest 
interest and value ****** * 

From a description published in The 
Architectural Record we take the follow- 
ing summary of its distinctive features : 

The Ingalls Building occupies the entire area of a 
corner lot, 50 by 100 feet, and is fifteen stories, and a 
full attic, practically sixteen stories, rising to a 
height of 210 feet above the sidewalks. The one-half 
of the basement is the usual twelve feet deep: but 
the other half, containing the power plant, is twenty 
feet deep. The foundations extend five feet below 
this, so that the entire height of the structure from 
the bottom of the foundation is 235 feet, entirely con- 
crete-steel. In fact, it is a concrete box of eight-inch 
walls, with concrete floors and roof, concrete beams, 
concrete columns, concrete stairs; the whole entirety 
devoid of the usual I-beams, Z-bars, angle irons, 
plates, rivets, and bolts. ********* 

The Baltimore fire emphasizes with 
great clearness the value of steel rein- 
forced concrete as a fire-resisting mate- 
rial. The future of plastic architecture is 
full of promise, and when it is remem- 
bered that the annual per capita con- 
sumption of cement in this country had 
reached in 1902 the astonishing figure 
of 119 pounds, in the aggregate some 
30,000,000 barrels, it is not unsafe proph- 
ecy to predict for it a steady encroach- 
ment upon the field of every form of 
building material now available, wood 
included. 



I 2 



cracks in the concrete is the only effect noticeable, the 
strength of the material being unimpaired. 

The proof which is the most convincing was that 
afforded by the recent Baltimore fire. In that great con- 
flagration, every known type of construction was subjected 
to the flames. After the fire, engineers came from all over 
the country to observe what type of construction had best 
withstood the flames. The opinion of these experts was 
strikingly unanimous and decisive to the effect that concrete 
had stood up better than the steel frames with terra-cotta 
protection and, of course, better than brick and stone. In 
fact the two buildings in the district constructed of concrete 
(the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Building and the 
International Trust Company Building) stand like monu- 
ments to the material of which they are constructed while 
all around them lie shapeless heaps of broken brick, stone, 
and hollow tile, as well as columns and beams of structural 
steel distorted into fanciful shapes by the action of the fire. 

From the great mass of expert opinion 
Professor Norton's we will quote only the comments of Prof. 
testimony regarding Norton of the Massachusetts Institute 
the Baltimore fire of Technology as reported in the Boston 

Transcript : 

" Stone, whether granite, marble, sandstone or lime- 
stone fared badly. Where floor arches and steel 
coverings were of concrete they stood the test much 
better than terra cotta. This was due probably to 
the fact that concrete and steel expand at the same 
rate while terra cotta expands iy 2 times as fast as 
steel and so the partitions or floor arches buckle or 
break. In general, the unfitness of terra cotta for 
beam and post covering and floor construction in 
comparison with concrete was demonstrated." 

13 




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Concrete protects It should be noted here that in re- 
steel from corrosion enforced concrete construction the steel 

is completely imbedded in the concrete 
which absolutely protects it from fire as indeed it does 
from rust and all other corrosive action. It has been 
demonstrated in several instances that cast-iron piping 
which had been covered with a coat of liquid neat cement 
and buried underground for from ten to fifteen years, 
showed no signs of rust or other external deterioration. A 
lining of "rich" concrete has been found to be the only 
material which will withstand the corrosive action of the 
acids in the large storage tanks or vats in pulp mills. 

As regards the strength of concrete it 

The strength of well- . ........ 

must be remembered that it is in this 

engineered concrete , , . . 

connection that the engineer s advice is 

structures widely re- . ,. , , ^ , , 

indispensable. Compression and tensile 

cognized , , JU . . 

strains and the adhesion between steel 

and concrete must be kept within certain limits and pro- 
vision must be made for wind--pressure and strains of all 
sorts to which the structure or any part thereof may be 
subjected. That concrete is at least as strong as stone 
is evident to anyone who has observed, in traveling over 
the railroads, the extent to which concrete is being used 
as a substitute for stone. Many railroads, among which 
we may mention the Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore, the 
Rock Island and the Lackawanna are using it for bridges, 
abutments, culverts, and in other places where it bears 
the entire burden of the tracks and the traffic passing 
over them. An example is the bridge of re-enforced 
concrete erected by the Illinois Central over the Big 
Muddy River. The bridge has three elliptical arches 
each of 140 feet clear span. It was erected at less cost 

15 




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than a bridge of structural steel, it is more enduring and 
is decidedly more pleasing to the eye. A typical bridge 
of concrete alone, built on the straight masonry principle, 
is that of the Pennsylvania Railroad over the Susquehanna 
River, near Harrisburg, Pa. This structure is faced 
with a thin veneer of natural stone, which is not, how- 
ever, an essential part of the structure. 

The United States Government is using 

The United States . . , „ 

concrete in enormous quantities tor all 

Government employs c T ^ 

sorts or purposes. In the reconstruction 

the material exten- c , k r .- c ,• , XT v , 

or the fortifications around New York 

y Harbor during the last few years, con- 

crete has been used to the practical exclusion of all 
other materials. In other words, the thirteen-inch guns 
which guard the City of Steel-frame Skyscrapers are 
mounted on concrete foundations and are protected from 
hostile projectiles by the same material. 

But one more citation to demonstrate 

A sixteen-story con- , , , , , , ,.,. f , 

that the strength and durability or the 

crete structure . , m ■ u j ^l 

material are officially recognized. 1 here 

has just been finished in Cincinnati, Ohio, a sixteen-story 
office building made entirely of re-enforced concrete. 
The plans for this building were approved by the city 
authorities only after a great number of tests had been 
made which proved beyond the possibility of doubt that 
the building would be absolutely safe. Concrete en- 
thusiasts predict that this building will be standing long 
after the steel skeleton structures in the neighborhood have 
disintegrated. The deterioration of steel when protected 
by nothing more than terra cotta slabs, noted in a number 
of cases, tends to lend strength to this view. 

In fact, superior durability is one of the best- 

17 



Floor construction with I-beams. 




Floor construction, with ceiling clipped to I-beams. 










*S?or?e CoTfcrpTe 

















Method of re-enforcing water-mains, sewers, etc. 



EXAMPLES OF RE-ENFORCEMENT WITH ELECTRICALLY WELDED WIRE FABRIC. 

18 



substantiated claims for concrete buildings. It has long 
been recognized that concrete becomes stronger with age 
and the same is not true of any other material. Engineers 
are divided in their estimates as to how long a steel- 
frame structure will endure. 

It might be expected that a material 

Concrete is compara- . , . . , , ,. . . , 

with so many desirable qualities would 

tively cheap . . " , . , 

be more expensive than the materials 

which it is displacing. The contrary is the case. Con- 
crete is cheaper than stone, or steel frame and terra cotta. 
It can be manipulated by unskilled labor to a greater 
extent than any other material and thus the troubles and 
delays due to the arbitrary actions of the unions are 
minimized. There are many localities in the country 
where no stone suitable for building purposes exists but 
where there is much stone admirably adapted for being 
crushed and used for concrete. In short, the raw materials 
for concrete can be laid down at almost any point in 
the country cheaper than any other material and the 
costs of putting it in place are less. 

To sum up — the strength and durability 

Investigation of the c , . , ,. , 

or concrete, the ease with which it may 

merits of concrete , c •. • i i c 

be re-enforced with steel to form a 

recommended , . r , ,. , .,- 

combination or universal applicability, 

its fire-resisting and time-defying qualities and its low 
first cost, stamp it as the great material of the future. 
He who contemplates building and does so without at 
least examining into the merits of concrete is indeed 
blind to the March of Improvement. 



'9 



ENGINEERING 

EXAMINATIONS made 
and comprehensive re- 
ports rendered, covering the 
commercial and the engi- 
neering features of projects 
in the fields of Civil, 
Mechanical, Electrical, 
Hydraulic and Mining En- 
gineering* Plans, specifi- 
cations and superintendence 
of transportation and com- 
mercial enterprises. 



OPERATION 

"PHE management of 
Mines, Waterworks, 
Steam and Electric Roads, 
Power Plants, Cement 
Wo r k s , etc*, undertaken 
either temporarily for 
estates, executors, or assigns, 
or permanently for owners; 
the charge for this service 
being on a percentage 
basis* 



ENGINEERING 
COMPANY OF AMERICA 

Incorporated under the Laws of the State of New York 

74 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 



BRANCH OFFICES: 

J59 LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 
2J3 BOSTON BUILDING, DENVER, COLO. 
PIEDMONT BUILDING, CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
STEINER BUILDING, BIRMINGHAM, ALA. 



CONSTRUCTION 

CONTRACTS under- 
taken for the engi- 
neering, construction and 
complete installation of 
steam and electric roads 
and industrial plants* 



FINANCE 

ASSISTANCE rendered 
in securing capital for 
enterprises, which, after in- 
vestigation are demon- 
strated to be of unquestioned 
merit. 



20 



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